Page 43 of The Last to Know

The film played on. Neither of them really paying it much attention. Caz felt her eyes grow heavy and was drifting in and out.

So relaxed.

“What do you think?” she heard Grace ask.

“Huh, what? Sorry, I drifted off then.”

Grace chuckled and wriggled closer. “I was thinking, this is nice, laying like this together, and maybe…it could work for when we get the sperm and you—”

Caz stiffened, fully awake now.

This wasn’t a conversation she was expecting this evening, or any evening before they got home, and the subject would inevitably be raised again.

“How do you mean?”

“I just thought it might be less…invasive for you. I could—” Without warning, Grace raised her left leg and hooked it backwards until her foot rested on Caz’s calf. “And you could then—” she reached for Caz’s hand and moved it backwards too, “slide under my leg and do it, while holding me, but without the—”

Caz understood what she was saying. It actually made a lot of sense and definitely would remove a level of embarrassment, while creating a whole heap more.

“Yeah, okay, I get it…would that work…you know, for you?”

“I think so.” She brought her leg down and reached for Caz’s hand again, slipping it back around herself until Caz was holding her close. “I don’t mind, really, I trust you, but Iappreciate that it’s not something one does for a friend usually. I want you to be part of the process, from start to finish, though.”

“I guess I just always thought… I didn’t really think I’d ever have kids, and I never considered what the process would be if I did. I just assumed it would be clinical, with doctors. And I think about friends who have had kids and how…I dunno, but it must have been more…”

“Loving?” Grace ventured.

“Yeah, I suppose. Two people who loved one another so much they wanted to make a baby, and then they did so because they were able to be romantic like that with each other and—”

“Do you want us to be romantic when we do it?” Grace asked, and just the words sent a tumble of butterflies roiling in her tummy.

“In an ideal world—”

“We could,” Grace interjected. “I mean…there’s nothing stopping us from doing that.”

The words wouldn’t catch up in Caz’s head. What did she mean by they could?

“I’m not following,” Caz admitted.

In a moment of acrobatic amazement, Grace twisted until she was facing Caz, noses almost touching.

“You’ve kissed me before,” she said, and Caz swallowed hard.

“I was drunk, and don’t even remember doing it.”

Grace smiled. “True, but I have admitted it was a good kiss. I didn’t dislike it.”

Was this really happening?Caz thought. Was this something new between them or just a proposal for making Caz feel more at ease impregnating her best friend?

“What are you saying?”

Grace rolled her eyes and grinned. “I’m saying, if I were facing you and—” She raised her leg again, opening herself to the position that might work for them. “We could kiss while you—you know.”

Her eyes lingered on Caz for so long that Caz felt mesmerised.

“I don’t think that would—”

“Kiss me,” Grace insisted, moving closer.

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